3 ms·
I think in this context he’s talking about a very specific meaning of symbolic, vs connectionist the two main classes of models of thought. Symbolic is somethin
by rusk 8y ago
I think in this context he’s talking about a very specific meaning of symbolic, vs connectionist the two main classes of models of thought. Symbolic is something where you can make out the structure of what’s going on (a requirement for analysis or “introspection”; hence clearly). The alternative is bottom up modelling eg with neural networks where only the outcome is known and the internal processes can’t really be analysed.
- Gibbon1 8y agoMy frank thought on this is the AI researchers that placed their bets on symbolic logic were placing their bets on the idea that symbolic logic is at a higher level than connectionist logic. If you're not emotionally invested that argument is laughable. It's total basis is that human suck at math.
- YeGoblynQueenne 8y agoThe original artificial neuron, the Pitts-McCulloch neuron, was a propositional logic circuit, conceived entirely on the basis of a model of biological neurons as logic gates, with a threshold function that controlled their true or false value. It was even called the Threshold Logic Unit. The paper where it was first described is titled "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity". In fact, the perceptron too was a logic circuit, a function with two outputs, "positive" and "negative ... or "true" and "false". AI researchers always used the tools that all scientists use to model their subject, in this case, intelligence: maths. Logic is maths, just as probabilities, calculus, algebra, etc etc.
- rusk 8y agoI think you’ve completely misunderstood what is going on here.